Agendas, Incubators, and Marketing Organization

Because of its boundary-spanning role in the firm, the marketing organization must simultaneously develop new capabilities while also focusing managers limited attention on current goals and sources of revenue. This is especially true in fast-changing and technologically dynamic market environments and is crucial in that portion of marketing activity called selling. This article, via a longitudinal study of IBM's field marketing operations, empahasizes the agenda setting and incubating aspects of traditional organizational structures (rather than new organizational forms) in meeting these requirements. It suggests a view of strategy-organization relationships that stresses the enabling constraints of formal structures, and it discusses some key benefits, costs, and prerequisites of marketing reorganizations.